As a professional video terminal, a current video conference terminal, unlike a consumer video terminal, always cannot provide a friendly, convenient, and direct-viewing Human Machine Interface (HMI). To modify conference configuration or perform conference control, it is needed to enter specific menu interfaces level by level for operation. Whether a web manner or a mouse manner is used, a user needs to spend a lot of time in understanding complicated meaning of an interface menu.
Meanwhile, various menu operation interfaces, including a transparent interface, a hidden interface, interface miniaturization, various shortcut keys, and a separately output interface, contest a limited display window with a conference site image to occupy a large display area of a display screen, no matter how good the interfaces are designed. A menu operation interface frequently used in a conference also distracts people's attention, so that what should be concerned in the conference may be missed. Even if a specialized person is assigned to maintain conference control, the preceding problems and disadvantages may still not be solved well.
Currently, two main video conference control methods exist. The first method is a director control method, that is, operations such as broadcasting a conference site, viewing a conference site, voice-controlled switching, multi-picture setting, and ending a video conference are performed on a central control operating console of a system. The second method is a chair terminal control method, that is, a chair terminal is set, and the operations such as broadcasting the conference site, viewing the conference site, voice-controlled switching, multi-picture setting, and ending the video conference are performed on the chair terminal.
In the first method, the video conference control is performed on the central control operating console of the system. Since a user of the video conference cannot feel existence of the operating console, it is unrealistic for a person participating in the video conference to directly perform the conference control on the operating console. An operator must be assigned to perform the video conference control at the background, and a video conference control command is sent by a video conference chair to the operator, and then the operator performs the video conference control according to the control command.
In the second method, the video conference control is implemented through the chair terminal. A conference terminal participating in the conference applies for being the chair terminal. After the application succeeds, the conference control is completed through an operation on an interface of the conference terminal. However, when the video conference control is implemented through the chair terminal, it is needed to enter specific menu interfaces level by level for operation, so a control operation is very tedious and annoying. In order to implement a video conference control operation such as ending the video conference, it is often needed to make multiple choices and enter a multi-level menu in order to find a relevant video conference control operation, which is rather inconvenient. Moreover, a control menu interface contests the limited display window with the conference site image, which distracts attention of a person participating in the conference.
During implementation of the present invention, the inventor finds that: In the first method, an operator must be assigned to perform the video conference control at the background, and a video conference control command needs to be sent by a video conference chair to the operator, and then the operator performs the video conference control according to the control command, so a situation of each conference site cannot be controlled in time according to a conference requirement. In the second method, it is needed to enter the specific menu interfaces level by level for selection operation, so the control operation is rather inconvenient. Besides, the control menu interface occupies the display window of each conference site image on the display screen, thereby influencing a conference viewing effect.